The peel test is widely used for material selection and quality control testing. To learn the properties and adhesion characteristics of material, the test conditions and analytical methods should be used appropriately. The purpose of a peel test is to obtain the main property of the interface, GC, which is usually called fracture energy. The value of fracture energy, GC, should be the main characteristic for the evaluation of bond strength.
There have been many attempts to calculate the fracture energy GC, which reflects bond properties. However, the authors mostly focused on the case of a joint with substrates as adhesives.
Choe Kyong Hyok, a section head at the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Technology, has proposed a method for determining the fracture energy of a polyethylene thermal joint and determined the fracture energy values for several joints.
He performed a finite element analysis to determine the fracture energy values from the peel test data. He used a node release technique to model the crack propagation through the interface of the two membranes. When performing finite element modeling, he accurately reflected the mechanical properties of polyethylene to increase the accuracy of the simulation.
For more information, please refer to his paper “Method for Determining Fracture Toughness of Polymer Adhesive Interfaces Considering Viscoelastic Loss” in “Proceedings of KUTIC-2025”.